It has been an interesting season here in Kentucky in the US. Spring and the beginning of summer were very, very wet. Then the latter part of the summer was very, very dry. Now it has rained some, enough to turn the grass green again, and a sudden dip in temperature last weekend is turning the leaves to yellow, orange, and red. In another week, nature around me will be a wonderland of color. That autumn scene is a picture to me of a phrase from today’s Gospel, “rich in what matters to God.”
What does that mean?
My Grandmother’s Example
My grandmother was rich in what matters to God. My grandparents on my father’s side were “ridge farmers.” They owned a small farm, but little of it was tillable. Most of it was woods or rocky hillside pastures that could sustain few livestock. When I was three, my father built them a house near us. My grandfather died a few years later, and my grandmother lived alone for the next twenty years or so—on a social security income of $66 a month (my grandfather had never worked off the farm, so he had never paid into the social security system, thus they were eligible for only the minimum payments). Yet Mamaw was rich in what matters to God. Severe arthritis kept her housebound, yet a telephone and her watchful eye out her window enabled her to know and care about what happened each day with her neighbors. She loved visitors and insisted people come see her. And so we did. I gave her an African violet once for Christmas, and that was the beginning of windows full of beautiful blooms. Yet, with her limited mobility, it took her all day every Wednesday to water them. She read her Bible, prayed about everything, and loved everybody. Mamaw was rich in what matters to God.
A Friend
Last week a good friend of mine went to be with the Lord. After an eight-year battle, cancer finally won over her body. Her Mass of Christian Burial was a testimony of wealth in what matters to God. She was a woman of means, though she lived simply. She was a woman of faith, of virtue, and of many, diverse friends.
She was also a woman who was intentional about her witness in her illness, her suffering, and in her funeral. She and Father planned it to speak to her family, her mixture of Protestant and Catholic friends, and the parish of the joy and richness of putting ALL your faith in simply trusting God. A charismatic Catholic from the 1970s, when she became sick, she prayed for healing…again and again and again through the years. There was no healing of her body. But there was a blooming of her soul as she weathered the effects of cancer and its treatment in her breasts, her bones, and her stomach. She struggled, but, round by round, she accepted what God did with her. I watched and listened to her prayers move to what she said the last day I took her communion, “Lord, I am not worthy for you to receive me under your roof, but only say the word, and I shall be healed” and “still, Lord, let me be a witness.”
After communion at her funeral, we all sang the 8-fold alleluia—something Protestants and Catholics knew, something that could fill the church with “Praise the Lord.” There was a unity of faith and passion for faith in that moment that spoke of God’s richness like a row great golden maple trees. It blazed to God a community’s faith and life. It was an expression of the richness of what matters to God.
Today’s Readings
In today’s Gospel Jesus is asked by someone in the crowd, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” It was one of those times when Jesus said, “no.” He wasn’t harsh about it. He said, “Friend, who appointed me your judge and arbitrator?” Then he told the parable of a man who had much material wealth—and sought more. Yet, he died—leaving all his riches behind. Jesus ended with the lines that speak to me today, “Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself, but is not rich in what matters to God.”
In his reflection last Saturday, John Ciribassi made a point that is also important today for our understanding of the selection from Romans. He noted that Abraham lived some 400 years before God gave Moses the “Law” on Mt. Sinai. Abraham followed God on faith—a belief he could trust God’s promise to him. He committed his life to that faith: as he journeyed with everything he owned to another land; as he separated from Lot, then pleaded for him; as he waited for 25 years for the child that God promised him; as he was willing to sacrifice that child if God asked him to.
The example of Abraham was an important example for Paul to use as he worked to help the church in Rome work through the inevitable tensions between Jews and Gentiles. In today’s reading Paul notes that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. He believed, trusted, and followed. Then he makes a point to the Romans, “But it was not for him alone that it was written that it was credited to him; it was also for us, to whom it will be credited, who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead…”
In other words, it was good enough that the Gentiles believed in Christ. They didn’t have to know and obey all the law to be good and holy in the sight of God. They were rich enough in what matters to God to get started in a Christian life. This is only chapter 4 of Romans. Paul has a lot MORE to say to both Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome about what a life of faith is. Keep reading and praying.
Uniting This Collage of Examples
There is a richness in what matters to God in the great beauty of maple trees in autumn. It blazes in the glory of the life and growth the trees have made all summer, even as they ready for winter…and a spring yet to come. There was a richness in what matters to God in Abraham as he began a walk with God when he was 75 years old. He learned and developed as he walked with God…until he died at age 175 years. There was potential richness in what matters to God in the community at Rome. There was a richness to my grandmother’s faith. She probably wasn’t even baptized until she was in her 60s. She was always poor in material goods. Yet her faith and the attitudes that came from that faith made her rich in what matters to God. My friend, too, who is newly in Eternal Life, was rich in what matters to God.
And each person who is rich in what matters to God enriches the world around them like a row of maple trees in October.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for the witnesses of faith you have given me in my life—from both my grandmothers…to my friends…to the glorious colors of autumn. They tell me what is wealth in your eyes, Lord. Teach me today to be as faith-filled as they have been. Lead me, guide me, Lord.
